KsTU runs over ’30 programmes’ not accredited by GTEC – Report

The Kumasi Technical University (KsTU) formerly known as Kumasi Polytechnic according to the 2021 Auditor General’s Report is running 32 programmes not accredited by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC).

They include five Master of Technology programmes, nine Bachelor of Technology programmes, 17 Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes and one Diploma programme.

The more than 30 unaccredited programmes came to light when the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament began its sitting to consider the 2021 academic year Auditor General’s Report referred to the committee.

The PAC said institutions running unaccredited programmes was an issue that affected students negatively when they later applied to pursue higher programmes at other universities.

The Accounts Committee therefore has urged the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to consider implementing automatic renewals for ongoing programmes, and to speed up their entire processes.

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament also charged the commission to embark on regular monitoring to find out how accreditation was implemented in the universities to avoid setbacks for prospective students.

However, the management of the Ashanti region-based Technical University responding to the Committee said the university was doing everything possible to get the 32 programmes accredited by the Tertiary Education Commission.

“Currently, 16 of them had been accredited, while the other 16 programmes were at various stages of the accreditation process. The accreditation process could take between six months and one year,” the KsTU management told PAC.

The Chairman of the PAC, Dr James Klutse Avedzi, said the Public Committee would invite the GTEC and the universities to find a solution to problems related to the delay in renewing or granting accreditation.

“There is the need to bring the two bodies together to look at where the problem is and how we can address it, so we don’t examine students on courses and programmes that don’t have accreditation,” he said.

Dr Avedzi said the issue of running unaccredited programmes at the universities was not limited to the Kumasi Technical University (KsTU), but that it was a common phenomenon across the traditional universities in the country.

He said both the universities and the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) were partly to be blamed for the delay in the granting of accreditation to the programmes being run by the institutions.